Regarding fluid mounting, I think this is still popular with people who do certain types of scanning. I feel the same way as you regarding the risk. It seems like a disaster waiting to happen, even with the best technique. And I don't like the idea of having to wipe my negatives with Pec Pads and cleaning fluid. The whole thing is too messy and complicated for me.

I have no personal experience about wet scanning or printing but it seems that fluid scanning makes a dramatic difference in respect to dry scanning.
Maybe (maybe) there is a marked gain in sharpness also when printing.

Considering your drive for quality and perfection I suggest you try it at least with some low-value negative. The gain you should get in quality is probably bigger than any improvement in the enlarger glass. Who knows, you might find an unexpected improvement.

Pec-12 is a very reliable liquid much praised by professionals in some fora and gives no problem at all. I personally use it occasionally to clean finger marks on the emulsion side. I never used it to remove scanning fluid but some people does this job regularly without any problem.

I would certainly try wet scanning if I had a scanner supporting it (with my desktop scanner wet scanning is not feasible).